ENOSH BOLO, HOMA BAY COUNTY GOVER­NOR AS­PI­RANT / “De­vo­lu­tion in Homa Bay county has not taken off,” he says em­phat­i­cally, still shak­ing his head.

“De­vo­lu­tion in Homa Bay county has not taken off,” he says em­phat­i­cally, still shak­ing his head.

“Noth­ing has taken off, even though the county has re­ceived over Sh15 bil­lion in the last four years. It’s like the county has been is­sued with a bad de­vo­lu­tion cheque.”

At 43, Bolo, a man­age­ment con­sul­tant, is as prag­matic as politi­cians come. He is forth­right and ex­presses him­self in a no-holds-barred man­ner, de­void of pre­var­i­ca­tion, eyes on the ball.

In 2013, Bolo was one of those dyedin-the-wool sup­port­ers of Gover­nor Cyprian Awiti. He mar­shaled his men­tal, in­tel­lec­tual and fi­nan­cial re­sources to help shore up Awiti’s regime in the hope that it would has­ten the pace of de­vo­lu­tion.

He started an ini­tia­tive to put in place sys­tems that would help the new county gov­ern­ment achieve sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment as laid out in the gover­nor’s man­i­festo.

He soon re­alised the gover­nor was not ready to de­liver as he was “hot on ideas but cold in their im­ple­men­ta­tion”.

They fell out in 2014, and Bolo de­clared his in­ten­tions to suc­ceed Awiti.

“I have been on the ground cam­paign­ing since 2014. I have sus­tained the cam­paign for so long noth­ing will de­ter me from be­com­ing the next gover­nor.”

He says he is the best bet for the county be­cause of his vast man­age­rial ca­pa­bil­ity, youth­ful­ness, humble back­ground and the fact that he is an in­spi­ra­tion to many.

“A tour of Homa Bay county opens eyes to the missed op­por­tu­ni­ties brought about by de­vo­lu­tion,” he says

He has learnt painfully, though, that de­vo­lu­tion is at the mercy of gov­er­nors who lack the abil­ity to har­ness the ex­ist­ing po­ten­tial to lay a firm foun­da­tion for the coun­ties to take off.

In his view, the na­tional share­able rev­enue is not enough to trans­form the 47 coun­ties.

What the coun­ties need are gov­er­nors with both pri­vate and pub­lic sec­tor ori­en­ta­tion and the abil­ity to look for ad­di­tional funds through a well-man­aged global fundrais­ing pro­gramme.

Such gov­er­nors, he says, should have the ca­pac­ity de­velop ideas and pitch them to a global au­di­ence for fi­nanc­ing.

Bolo is promis­ing res­i­dents an open­door pol­icy that will of­fer lead­er­ship that is open to chal­lenge; em­power women and other vul­ner­a­ble groups and make pru­dent use of the county’s re­sources.

Once elected, Bolo is promis­ing to au­dit of de­vel­op­ment needs.

“THEY FELL OUT IN 2014, AND BOLO DE­CLARED HIS IN­TEN­TIONS TO SUC­CEED AWITI.”